With the National Park Service's 100th birthday little more than a year away, the agency and the National Park Foundation are beginning to rollout the celebratory campaign, urging Americans to "Find Your Park."

National park concessionaires, deeply concerned over what they see as three decades of stagnant visitation to the National Park System, want Congress to authorize better marketing of the parks, longer "high" seasons in the parks they believe would generate more revenues for infrastructure improvements, and expanded concessionaire opportunities in the parks.

National Park Week, 2015 edition, is just a handful of weeks away. While any day is a great day to visit a national park, during this special week April 18-26 there will be more than a few events and activities to take part in.

A much publicized conference, Science for Parks, Parks for Science: The Next Century, opens today at the University of California, Berkeley. Led by the National Park Service and National Geographic Society, conference sponsors propose “to launch a Second Century of stewardship for the parks, 100 years after the historic meetings at UC Berkeley that helped launch the National Park Service.” A specialist on those meetings, Dr. Alfred Runte reports on why the story does not end there.

The backlog in maintenance across the National Park System is approaching $11.5 billion and touches many areas of the visitor experience, from campgrounds and trails to visitor centers and roads and bridges, according to the National Park Service.

Across the National Park System, the National Park Service has an estimated half-a-billion-dollars of obligations owed concessionaires who run lodges, restaurants, and even some activities. It's a sum that, while agency officials say it's manageable, has seemingly stifled concessions competition in some parks and diverted tens of millions of dollars from others to reduce debts.

All signs point to spring: warm winds, green budding trees, flowering bulbs, and... skiing? Sure enough! Spring’s a great time to spend some time sliding around on those broad bowls, snow-covered roads, and long ridges. The weather is mild, the skies are blue, and the days are long: it’s just a lot more comfortable spring-skiing than going on a mid-winter slog in a blizzard through deep snow.

While the 100th birthday of the National Park Service won't officially arrive until August 25, 2016, it's not too early to work on improving the agency's many park websites. And the agency's webmeisters are doing just that.

Parks and technology — for some park lovers never the twain shall meet. Parks are where you go to escape from technology. But for many others, technology is a way to discover, enjoy, and share experiences and a love for parks.

National Park Service officials, in trying yet again to attract a business to run concessions on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, claim the agency owns trademarks to business names associated with popular South Rim lodges and that Xanterra Parks & Resorts should abandon its bid to secure those trademarks.

An investigation into a case of vandalism that left painted images on rock outcrops in at least eight Western national parks is continuing with charges yet to be brought in the case, National Park Service officials say.

In a stroke of luck, a remote, motion-triggered camera in Yosemite National Park has captured a Sierra Nevada red fox out for a winter's day stroll in what is believed to be the first sighting of the rare carnivore in nearly a century.

Efforts by concessionaires to capitalize on the names of such iconic lodges as The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park and the El Tovar Hotel in Grand Canyon National Park might prove to be pointless under a section of the U.S. Code.

The 2013 Rim Fire was the largest forest fire in California history, and the largest fire in Yosemite history. Burning 400 square miles, the speed and size of the fire was unprecedented. As these unnaturally large fires become more commonplace due to previous fire suppression and climate change, Yosemite National Park is seeing the benefits of carefully allowing smaller, controlled fires on the landscape.

National Park Service officials have placed a $3.5 million value on the intellectual property rights attached to names of lodges in Yosemite National Park, a fraction of the $51 million valuation claimed by Delaware North Co.

Whether it was due to lower gas costs, better weather, or an improving economy, the bottom line for the National Park System for 2014 was impressive: An increase of more than 20 million visitors over 2013 levels, for a record total of 294 million, according to unofficial statistics.

Efforts by Xanterra Parks & Resorts to trademark the names of commercial businesses on the South Rim in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona will be examined by the National Park Service once their applications are published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for review.

While the Delaware North Company maintains that it can claim place names in Yosemite National Park as part of its intellectual property with a $51 million value, a prominent historian of national parks disagrees and hopes the National Park Service will challenge the company's belief.

Would "The Ahwahnee Hotel" still be the grand dame of national park lodging if called by another name? Would you stay at the Old Faithful Inn no matter what it was called? How much is the name "El Tovar Hotel" worth?

Despite all the electronic gadetry that allows you to consume media, hard-bound and paperback books continue to hold a considerable marketshare. And more than a few of those titles have something to do with national parks. We read as much as we could this year, and came away with the following reviews for your consideration.